The world is at the very beginning of a very steep change. The 4th industrial revolution is here, and it’s only going to accelerate. AI will change the world we live in. Meet Sandrine Desbarbieux-Lloyd, a digital leader by nature renowned for driving changes in organizations.
With Sandrine’s expertise in digital, she has built a high-performing European digital team that overachieves targets every year. She mentions, “As a marketer with over 25 years’ experience, I keep the team focused on always putting the customer at the heart of what we do.” As a digital marketer, Sandrine concentrates on hyper-targeting and hyper-personalization of team communication with the company’s visitors and customers, using AI and machine learning. This helps to increase customer satisfaction and generate additional revenue for the business at the same time.
Embracing the Changes to Get Ahead
Digital changes are happening every day. It is no longer just a channel to market, but a way of life. Sandrine believes it’s her job to make people comfortable with digital advancements and take them along on the journey. “It’s been my role to keep on top of those changes, be ahead of them sometimes, lead teams into the unknown, and make sure my team keeps on learning and challenging themselves,” says Sandrine.
Over the years, she has learned that the best results when creating change always come from multiple teams and multiple outputs. She says, “Good leaders listen to all views before shaping their own, and the great ideas that all of my team have helped form what change looks like.” It’s especially true of all the work the company does in AI/machine learning and intelligent automation. She opines, “We are at the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution and everything is going to change, so I am trying to keep ahead.”
Advance Tech Offerings
Samsung provides innovative products and experiences that enrich their customers’ lives with meaningful technology that puts their needs at the core. Samsung’s extensive range of products spans from smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices to TVs, digital appliances, and more, all designed with the mission of improving the daily lives of people around the world.
Samsung is also focused on innovations needed for tomorrow, and how it can build a more connected, thoughtful future.
Challenges Exposed by the Pandemic
Due to the pandemic, the focus on digital has been key for all businesses. It’s been the same at Samsung. As a team, all members have had to work hard to step up and increase the company’s digital presence. Sandrine opines, “It has accelerated our digital transformation by 5 years.”
According to Sandrine, outside of the pandemic, other challenges have been the integration of data and systems, moving away from manual work to being more and more automated, trying to move from 3rd party cookies to 1st party data, and having the systems and processes to be fit for the future advertising world.
Learning from Experienced Leaders
Sandrine has been lucky to have worked for great leaders in her career who have all taught her different things. These learning include how to be a good leader in tough times as well as good times; carrying on praising teams around you; how to always listen to the room before you speak; how to surround yourself with people who might be better than you in their particular field; how to build great teams and the best teams are made of differences; what it means to be a team member. She says, “I instill this in my leadership team and use it as a guide to always look for ways to continue to develop.”
Sandrine also considers that she has been lucky to work with great business coaches in her career. She asserts, “I have used what I have learned in ‘The Chimp Paradox’ by Professor Steve Peters, who’s a resident psychiatrist with the British Cycling and Sky ProCycling teams. His technique was used by Sir Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Craig Bellamy, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Victoria Pendleton to help them improve their performances. I often refer to it with my team. ”
Prioritizing Health with Work
As a European digital team, the whole team has been working remotely for the past 18 months and has remained super focused, working hard to deliver great results. So, as a team, they have decided to prioritize mental health and try and maintain a work/life balance. Sandrine asserts, “I, for example, have initiated keeping 12-2 pm free of meetings every day in everyone’s diaries so they can see the daylight, exercise, see their family, have a break. I have also booked monthly slots in everyone’s diaries so they can keep developing themselves and learn something new. ” She further adds. “It’s important we carry on giving back to our employees given all they do for us as an organization.”
Success Driving Values and the work culture
At Samsung, the company has a fast-paced and success-driven culture, with a deep-set Korean culture that constantly seeks to improve and innovate. This means the management is continuously working to provide consumers with the best-in-class products and experiences. The whole company empowers its staff to do their best work and this translates into an inspiring culture to be part of.
Advice to budding Entrepreneurs
AI is everywhere already. As per Sandrine, “It helps by recommending products I might be interested in, music I might like, and how to best get to where I want to go.” She visions taking advantage of those new technologies to better delight the company’s customers, help employees have better lives, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the business. Her advice to budding entrepreneurs is to “seek knowledge in that space, train yourself, and experiment.”
